Summary
Blue Lockhas maintained a legacy of truly pushing the envelope with soccer anime, celebrating individuality and the concept of egoism in a way that has never truly been seen within the confines of an older, more traditional sports narrative. Season 2 is just as unrelenting, with high-octane matches, tactical plays, and character clashes. Episode 2, “The Assassin and the Ninja,” furthers many of the plot points initiated in the first season regarding teamwork, individual talent, and the mental wars that define theBlue LockProject.
With strong remaining players constantly being introduced, the show keeps reminding us that Isagi and his friends are not the only ones that can shine; each new match shows how strong everyone really is in Blue Lock, and that’s what makes this show stand apart from the rest: no matter how good you think you become, there’s always an underdog that could beat you under his weapon’s strengths. With many new players still remaining that we haven’t even seen play at all, one can only wonder what the show has in store for us and what weapons each striker possesses. And ones that we have seen, we’re not even close to seeing their true potential. One can only become more excited about the upcominghigh-stakes Blue Lock vs. U-20 match.
Team A and Team B Selection
Isagi Eager To Prove Himself
The episode starts off by randomly selecting players from the remaining members of Blue Lock into Team A and B. Nanase Nijiro, Hiori Yo, and Isagi are chosen to join Rin and Shidou, on Team A. Isagi’s initial reaction was to not consider them friends but as rivals and stepping stones that he intends to climb over to grow stronger, but his whole perspective about them changed once they introduced themselves, and he was surprised to have players around him who had a friendly attitude towards him, comparing them to how Rin and Barou treated him with threats always, which was not only hilarious but set a good tone for the episode.
Where as for Team B, Kyohei and Kairu are selected,which everyone regards as giants. When entering the playing field, even Karasu and Otoya tell them that they will be on defense and that the top players are responsible for goals. The first whistle blows, and right after that, Rin and Shidou take the lead while Isagi ponders that he needs to adjust to their attacking patterns.
Aggression and Egos
The Clash Between The Top Players
The highlight of the episode is the constant tug-of-war between individual brilliance and the power of teamwork. While Team A is full of stars, their refusal to cooperate leads them to miss many opportunities. Meanwhile, Team B, without such star power, uses its synergy to exploit the lack of cohesion among members of Team A. Shidou starts off thematch strong by scoring an insaneback heel goal, shocking everyone, especially Isagi. Karasu notices that although Shidou has a great physique for scoring goals, his defense, however, is weak. Karasu then targets Isagi, calling him the weakest link in their team, and says that he always targets weaknesses, not strengths, until his opponent gives in and he wins. Karasu says that Isagi levels up with his strong teammates, but without them, he is just average. His team tries to help Isagi out, but Isagi is focused heavily on Karasu.
The game continues, and once more Karasu attacks at Isagi, this time blocking Rin’s path to him. He completely loses faith in Isagi and doesn’t pass the ball to him at all. Rin passes to Hiori instead. Hiori does an imitation of Isagi’s one-two passing move, which impresses him. Otoya confronts him, teasing and calling him Mr. Genius’s little brother. Shidou and Chigiri both ran toward him. He completely focuses on the goal and takes a shot directly at the goal, using everyone as bait and completely ignoring them, and makes a perfect goal.
Biggest Highlight of The Episode
Chigiri Proving Himself
Seeing how the top players were performing, Isagi couldn’t help but feel left out. Chigiri is looking at Isagi and knowing him long enough to notice that he is putting himself down because he himself was doing the same, but he also understands that the four Top 6 players are the only ones accomplishing anything, and everyone else is useless. Isagi is constantlytrying to prove himselfby moving forward but is not able to accomplish anything. Chigiri, on the other hand, is hesitant to put himself out there, fearing that it would only serve as bait. Instead, he’ll concentrate on what he can do now.
Seeing an opening, he tries to avoid the center because it’s overcrowded. He heads right, and this puts him in close touch with Isagi. Chirigi intends to open up the field with his incredible speed. Chigiri runs past Isagi in anincredible move that impresses Karasu, and he decides to offer Chigiri an opportunity by passing the ball to him. Chigiri completes the pass, but Rin instantly confronts him. Chigiri senses Otoya has arrived to help him, so he transfers the ball to him, successfully evading Rin. Otoya uses Chigiri’s speed as momentum to complete the pass and score.
Teamwork vs Ego
When Top Players Prefer Ego to Winning
The game continues, with Rin passing to Hiori and Isagi being ignored once more. Watching Hiori do everything he can to be involved, Isagi resolves to do the same by placing himself in front of the goal and waiting for an opportunity. Karasu strikes him again, seeing through his ploy. Isagi attempts but fails to get around him. Hiori passes it over to Rin, but Shidou attempts to steal it for himself, ruining the chance for goal.
Chigiri steals, passes to Otoya, who then passes to Karasu. Then Karasu scores the fourth point for Team B. Isagi is shocked at how bad this is, but is also confused by why Rin and Shidou crashed into one another and how the best players in Blue Lock aren’t able to work together. But both Rin and Shidou glare at each other, and all either of them think is that it was his ball. Isagi now realizes they are really the worst in compatibility among the Top 6. It then clicks with Isagi: this is something he can use to his advantage.
Drop in Animation Quality
From Smooth Animation To Moving Images
The episode does exceptionally well in portraying the psychological battles that need to happen between players. However, as fans were already worried and concerned before by the trailer, the drop in animation quality is insane due to tighter release dates and production limitations; most of the episode is just still shots of players visualizing what they intend to do with hardly any action or animation at all. The weapons and movements are just images moving really fast. Even the biggest highlight of the episode was when Chigiri used his insane speed to prove himself to the top players. It felt really bland, the only saving grace would be the detailed character shots in some frames, especially the ending scene of Isagi, but we can only hope it goes uphill from here or fans are in for some disappointment.
Another thing that works against it is the pacing. Because while the match itself does anexcellent job of working out its intensity, some of these conversational scenes drag a bit, and the momentum of the episode does stall as a result, like most of the episode, it was Isagi being shocked during the whole match and thinking what he needs to do instead of acting upon something . This could have been smoothed over by trimming some of those scenes down to keep that high energy from the match scenes going.
The inconsistent animation, coupled with some pacing problems, holds this episode back from really shining. Indeed, the character dynamics and the choreography of the match are fascinating, but such technical shortcomings ultimately drag down what could be a great watch. At any rate,Blue Lockis a must-see for fans of sports anime, with Episode 2 building upon a really cool take on soccer. It will be interesting, as the season goes on, how the characters change, but especially Team A members, because they have to learn to bury their egos if they want to succeed in the Blue Lock Project.
Blue Lock
Cast
Based on Muneyuki Kaneshiro’s soccer manga, Blue Lock revolves around a program to develop a world-class Japanese striker. Just about qualifying, Isagi has to face off against the nation’s best young talents and survive selections, while constantly growing as a player.
